Dressed In Dawn
by TheTravelWriter
Summary: The reign of King Karl Heinz the Third is spreading across the land, and with it bloodshed. Yi Komir (Yui Komori) joins the rebellion after her village and her family were taken from her, and her brother faces the royalty and the cruelty of the Vampyre race. How will they survive when humans are slaves to the Vampyres? Warning, blood, violence, swearing and adult scenes.
1. Chapter 1

It seems that Diabolik Lovers has cursed me eternally to write fanfiction for it. To stick with the environment I'm writing in, which is like Scotland (woo, my permanent homeland and residence), so Yui Komori became Yi Komir, and her brother who would have been called Chirou, was called Ciro. Here, Yui is about seven and Ciro is ten. Don't worry, the other character will be jumping in soon, but you know how I am with background stuff. I hope you enjoy this interesting twist on the original story of Diabolik Lovers.

* * *

><p><span><strong>CHAPTER ONE: Beckoning Fire<strong>

When they came, she was still a young girl, adorned in her pretty white dress and crown of flowers for some festival or another that she no longer remembered the name or purpose of, clouded in a thick haze of blood and war.

With her brother, she had been at the top of the hill, climbing the rocks with frequent stumbles as a result of the length of the dress, a smile set firmly upon her face, labelled a slow-poke by her brother who was no better off yet already at the top so clearly the winner of their short but fun competition.

He pulled her up as she turned to look at their small mountain village. Every climb to the hill proved the sight to be just as wonderful as it had been in her mind; she had climbed it so often she could tell every detail through memory alone; she could map out the entire village if she were given the materials, or paint it if she knew how.

Her brother could do more, she was certain, because he was older and he was taught such things with the other boys.

"Come on, I'll help you up."

"I can climb better than you." Her curt tone made it clear that she would not accept assistance and Ciro tried not to look disappointed as she proved herself to be correct, scaling the old apple tree with little to no struggle, her dress hardly a hindrance any longer as she beat him to their viewpoint, letting her legs swing over the branch's edge with an expression that, quite simply, said: "I told you so."

The tree was supposedly planted by the founder of the village. It produced apples, but the birds often took the apples before anyone else could reach them, but from what they heard from those that were fortunate enough to get the apples, it was not worth the effort: they were bitter.

It was the highest safe point for the two children to go, the remaining branches too weak to handle their combined weight. Their legs dangled off the end of the branch, Yi kicking the dress back and forth, the hem was always stained brown from mud and she was always covered in scratches from her less-than-lady-like adventures.

Beyond their mountain village, higher slopes could be seen touching the clear blue sky, a faded purple, a smudge in the sky from a far enough distance. Very few people had wandered beyond the village, and Yi always found herself in wonder as to what could be beyond it; so much so that her heart almost ached to know who could be beyond the borders of their working land.

"Ciro? Yi?" The shouts of their mother shattered through the moment in time, the figure of their mother shouting at them coming closer, stumbling towards their location with a scowl upon her face. "I told you not to climb up there, especially you Yi." Had Yi been bolder, she would have stuck out her tongue, but kept it firmly in her mouth.

"Now look what you did. Your dress is ruined." It was such a pristine white that she should not have been evenly remotely surprised that it was ruined, although she was certain that her mother intended for her to stay inside like a good little girl.

"I'll wear trouser next time."

"Oh god forbid." She took Yi and Ciro firmly by the hand, dragging them alongside her with the giggles of other women, who Ciro would hear mock their mother, barely audible. He would throw more than a few rocks if it did not make her seem worse in their eyes.

"They've been wandering off again." Her mother could be heard saying to her father.

It took a lot to make her tired, and this often meant that she heard things that she was not supposed to heard, and sometimes things that she did not want to hear.

"They're still young, and they've always been wandering." Her father was less stern when it came to their wanderings, in fact he encouraged it, but other irresponsibilities were dealt with harshly; she had always kept her good behaviour beyond their small travels so she seldom experienced the consequences.

"I don't know how Yi's parents were, but Ciro's worse than ever. Did you hear what he did to the Oakwell boy?" 'Yi's parents' was a phrase she first heard a month ago, and when she first heard it she refused to talk to Ciro or his parents for hours. Ciro tried everything he could to get a smile on her face, but she was sulking regardless. In fact, she would dare say that today was the first time she had smiled since, if only to ease Ciro's certainty that he was not the cause of her silence.

She had listened for the rest of the conversation, but they had fallen silent with time, and she could hear them walk up the stairs to their bedroom. The conversation would most likely continue the next day, and she would ponder on it as she always would, and end up making Ciro think he had done something horribly wrong once again.

She was awoken by a strange noise. The noise in itself was not strange, but when mixed with how late it was she could not help but find it strange.

The crunch of grass and rock under multiple feet, the clanks of metal against metal; it was to a pattern that she did not recognise; it sounded like marching.

The darkness of her room was soon lit up, the outside glowing bright orange. She lifted herself away from the blankets, rubbing her eyes as she lifted the curtains slightly. Squinting her eyes silently at the brightness, she could see men in armour, and she could see familiar faces being pulled apart, held in chains and thrown into cages. She saw one boy, Hura, bite down on one man's hand and try to run. He was grabbed by the collar and his neck was torn open, blood spurting everywhere as his mother screamed out. Her mouth was covered with an iron muzzle and she was thrown in with the others.

She heard her own house door being kicked open and the realisation that they were all being taken away kicked in with the terror that swiftly followed, throwing herself out of the bed. She had to hide, scrambling about her room for a place to hide, anywhere so long as they would not see her.

The bedroom door was opened swiftly, weapons drawn and pointed at the empty bed. Whoever owned the room had hidden themselves, and there was silence. Not even breathing could be heard. The two men searched the room for anyone hiding inside, they checked under the bed and in the closet, and the trunk where clothes and books had been tossed inside recklessly.

Taking his sword, the soldier stabbed into the trunk and pulled out, but there was no blood that followed. It was just rubbish that had been thrown inside.

"Check the other rooms." It was possible that the owner had fled to another room. They moved without her seeing them move, it was as though she had blinked and suddenly they were gone. She had already seen them tear out someone's throat with their bare teeth, and now they disappeared without a trace, and she dared to assume that they were not human at all, keeping herself tightly in place, the sword having only just missed her arm; a centimetre closer and they would have found her.

She would call it luck, but not a single thing felt lucky in the situation, and she had to force herself not to scream out when she heard Ciro screaming out as he was dragged away, the startled yell of her father and her mother almost pulling her out of her hiding spot, but she bit down on her lip and covered it, feeling the tears prick up and run down her face as she was paralysed there.

She did not know how long she stayed in the trunk. She had listened out for every noise, waiting until it had stopped before climbing out, but when they left her house and started to pack off the villagers she saw that they were not finished, taking the torches that had lit up the night and throwing them onto the thatched roofs of their houses, seeing them catch alight from her window, and she soon saw that it would be the same for their own house.

In the panic of people crying out, she could see Ciro lift his eyes to their home, and saw the realisation in his eyes as he saw Yi standing at the window with wide eyes, her eyes the colour of the flame. She disappeared from his sight as the soldiers threw their torches away.

He, unlike Yi, knew exactly what they were and why they were there, and he knew that they would not need their torches to walk in the dark. After he was pulled out of the house, he had fallen silent and had searched for Yi within the crowd, hoping that she would be safe, but also secretly hoping that they would not be separated. Seeing her in the house and seeing her run out of her room instilled a feeling of relief in him, but also a feeling of fear; knowing that she would be in just the same amount of danger as them.

"Why are you doing this!?" Screamed out one women.

"This territory is now under the control of King Karl Heinz and its people to be put into hard labour. Any attempts of escape will be dealt with swiftly." The body of Hura was evidence enough of this, and Ciro had only just seen it then: he had not been taken when the boy was killed.

He glanced at it only for a moment, the pale figure of Yi visible in the fire light. She was not running towards them with some deranged hope of slaughtering the soldiers. She was running towards their hill and towards their tree; it was the place she always ran to when she was frightened or upset, and he hoped that she would run further, away from this place: anywhere safe where she could not be caught.

"You monsters." It was the only thing that could be said, and it bounced off them like a wooden stick against their armour. Those who had the will to fight had already been killed. Hura's mother had taken to staring silently at the floor of their cage. There was no glint of horror, shock, and sorrow in her eyes; just bewildered confusion. He was already feeling such shock take over him, but he kept his eyes on the figure of Yi. In his mind, he told himself that so long as she was safe then he would be just fine, but he knew that he was lying to himself, and when they were taken into the pitch darkness, the burning light of their former home was all he could see.


	2. Chapter 2

And so I continue the series. Welcome to the world of madness and disappointment. The childhood section should last only a few more chapters. Unless you want to have it longer.

* * *

><p><span><strong>CHAPTER TWO: Chained in Iron<strong>

"I'm sure she'll sell. There's always someone into freaks." They were herded like sheep into what could only be described as a pen, their hands and feet bound, and the mouths of some covered if only to shut them up and allow the traders some peace and quiet.

Yi had curled herself into a tight knot in the corner, her dress stained with ash, and a fresh coat of blood from the collapsed figure directly in front of her: a young woman who had attempted an escape when the gate was open. They could not be bothered burning the body, and decided to leave it until it proved to be a hazard to their health.

The mumbles that came from her were almost incomprehensible: only audible when ears her way were strained. She was chanting the same prayer over and over again, a prayer her mother had told her to use whenever she was in danger. She had continued to pray obsessively, some vague hope that it was not a lie or superstition lurking in her mind.

They were at a camp at a bottom of a large mountain. A stone wall completely surrounded the small trading town, and they were at the very border of Vampyre territory. Although Yi knew very little about the world, she refused to believe that humans would buy humans, but there was no doubt in her mind that Vampyres would not mind so much; and she knew so little about them.

She did not know what they would do when they bought her, or indeed how they would buy her, but the uncertainty was enough to make her fearful, her pale eyes wandering constantly from figure to figure.

People from all over the taken land were cooped up in such pens in chains; children, women, and men. She recognised no one, and suspected that people from her own village were taken further into the territory.

Yi was taken in when she had collapsed. She had walked until her feet bled, and stopped at the bottom of a mountain path. She had wiped off the blood with the bottom of her dress, and continued to walk in the increasing heat, her skin itching and aching, and her stomach growling for attention, her eyes flickering in and out of focus: the land before her nothing but moor: she could see no figures or buildings, and she knew that she would not be resting anywhere warm, or safe, for quite some time.

She did not recall when she had fallen asleep, but when she awoke she was in a cage with several others and she was tied up. She could see the figures of men and women taking them, but when she spoke they would not answer her: they would not even look.

Yi was told about what would happen to them by the slaughtered woman. People were going to buy them and make them work, but when Yi said what sort of work the woman stopped speaking, and they were already in the town.

Her fate seemed grim, and her prayers soon faded. She had come to accept the fact that Ciro's mother had been lying to her: the prayer would not bring gods to her rescue; it would not bring anyone at all.

With that dull realisation, she held herself tighter. She felt that if she were small enough perhaps they would miss her, or perhaps she would disappear. It was a foolish thought, and she was fully aware of this fact. Even if it were possible to become smaller the closer she held herself, she stuck out like a sore thumb: she always did. Ciro's mother always said it was something that happened only to a select few and she ought to be proud, but she did not feel proud: she was called a freak and a monster, and the comment of one of the passing traders did little to support her belief that she was anything but a freak.

"Grubs up." Bread was thrown at them. It did not matter if it hit the ground; they did not care whether their goods were eating muddy bread, and Yi did not feel especially hungry, looking up at the sky and wondering what time it was and when they would be taken away. She suspected that it would not be too long; they would not like to keep hold of so many people for so long surely.

She did not know, she did not know how it worked.

"Eat." The piece of bread was given to her. A green-eyed, freckled boy passed her the food.

"I'm… not hungry."

"Eat. It's better than starving yourself." She took it, but she did not eat it. She was lying when she said she was not hungry; she had been hungry long since she entered the town. "If you eat you'll get strong. Then you can do something." He tore through his own piece like a starved wolf, barely chewing before swallowing.

"…Can we get out of here?" She was certain that it was a question everyone was thinking off, barely nibbling on the crust. She was stubborn, and she was going to at least pretend that she was not hungry if only to stop him from seeming smug.

A glance from the men to Yi signalled that he was intending to keep whatever it was he was going to say next secret, then he leaned forward and, with a smile on his face, he said:

"Just you wait. I got something set up." She held her doubts, the body still close by, but she did not complain out loud, caving into her hunger and chewing through the bread. The boy did not laugh; he knew that it would upset her.

Yi watched as the sky began to morph from blue to orange. She did little else beyond observe the slow change in colour, her mind wandering to other places, other thoughts, anything that would keep her mind away from the situation at hand. She had not learnt the boy's name, but she held onto the thin hope that, whatever plan he had in mind, it would work.

Eventually the orange sky turned black, and the stars shone out: it was a clear night, and it was unbearable cold. She wondered how long the boy's plan would take to work out. Surely he did not intend to wait until the Vampyres came for them? That would be a death wish.

The night droned on and nothing happened, and the moon was high in the sky. Her patience was thinning, and when the gates opened and the Vampyres came through she could feel only dread at the sight.

They were dressed glamorously compared to them, and compared to the townsfolk. They were also incredibly beautiful, with porcelain skin and glistening eyes, and an allure to them that almost drew her forward. She pulled herself back in disgust, knowing that it was such Vampyres that put her in her current predicament.

They stood away from the pens, because they did not want to seem too interested so early on, their eyes searching through the swarm of defeated people, plucking out anyone who seemed to be worthy of their interest, poking and prodding when necessary. Yi had stayed at the back, her bobbing head too small for them to see.

"I think I'll pick this boy." The boy that was pulled forward, with little struggle, had freckles and green eyes, and a smile upon his face, and Yi saw that he never glanced back, seemingly satisfied with the woman that had chosen him out of the crowd.

And it was in that moment that she realised that he had no plan at all. He had been lying to her, whether to comfort her or to silence her she did not know, and he had never thought of a way out. He expected no help and simply went with what was given to him, and she was left in stunned silence.

"That girl over there, I want to get a closer look at her." It was not Yi, they did not point at her.

A bizarre thought came into her head then: one that she was certain she could not fulfil, despite the fact that it had been tugging at her mind for so long. She looked up at the sky once again, and wished that the chains on her feet would break, and she would run, run beyond the horizon and far away: somewhere where no one could catch her.

She also wished that a monster would descend from the sky and eat all the Vampyres.

She was not surprised to find that it never happened.

"That girl there. The one with the pink eyes. Let's have a look at her."

She was pulled forward and faced a young man, although he was most likely centuries old, with copper eyes and copper hair, who turned her pale face from side to side, observing the youthful appearance.

"How old are you, girl?" She was silent for quite some time. She could not summon monsters from the sky, or wish away her chains, but she could at least hold her tongue. Her eyes and lips proved her to be obstinate, and less than willing to do a single thing the man said, glancing over to the boy. He seemed entirely unaffected by the fact that he had given her a glimmer of hope before ripping it away from her. She fully intended to hold the grudge against him.

"Seven." Her eyes were now upon him, pink eyes on copper, a silent defiance in them; a threat, a dare, a warning. She intended to let him know that she would not go down without a fight, and it was something she would certainly go through.

"Still too young." She did not know what was suggested by the words, but anything it could be was disgusting in her mind. "I'll take her." If she were truly capable of breaking the chains, she would wish upon it then, but nothing happened, and she was taken out of the pen, and pulled away in her chains. Her stare was upon the green-eyed, freckled boy.

It was the first time she felt betrayal, and she would make certain to remember his face.


	3. Chapter 3

Let me know if there's anything I need to touch up on: like the ending, beginning, etc. By the way, I write in the English English style, so yes it's 'civilisations' not 'civilizations'.

* * *

><p><span><strong>CHAPTER THREE: Bind with Blood<strong>

The cart rocked from side to side, the wheels rising and falling over every rock, making for an uncomfortable ride, although she knew full well that _her _comfort was of little interest to them, keeping her complaints to herself, and her eyes on the carriage in front of her.

They had bought four overall, two strong, working men, a woman with dark skin and a strong face, and herself. She thought herself an abnormality within the group, and that was exactly why she was plucked out. At the time, of course, she did not think about how her appearance would achieve gloating points for them, only that it was strange that they bought her.

She was also focused on the feeling of betrayal that had clung to her, refusing to leave for the simple fact that she had never felt it before, wondering if she would experience it again, or if it would fade as she had hoped: it was a disgusting feeling at the pit of her stomach that left her aching, and her hunger did little to help.

The land before her was barren. The trembling remains of an ancient city stood a short distance away, the closest of the buildings scratching the skies with its enormous height. She had heard a lot about the past civilisations, but only through stories. She heard that there was an explosion so great it shook the world, and then there was a war, and then there was quiet.

Over three hundred years ago, the story had been warped with time, and no one knew what truly happened, but the grey buildings could still be seen, and were still grim reminders of the destructive nature of human beings.

Ahead, beyond the carriage, beyond the rotted path and dead lands, the city could be seen: a glistening gem in the day time: designed to deter the monsters that wandered the lands like parasites, attacking anything that came too close.

Those parasites could be seen only out of the corners of their eyes, before scurrying away and hiding themselves from the prey and predator. If she stared into the wasteland long enough, they would make eye contact, and they would watch her as she watched them, their eyes glistening red.

'I need to get out of here.' She was thinking of every way she could, but she had never had to scurry from such a hostile situation, in fact it was the first time she had actually contemplated escape in a proper, serious fashion, because she was scared and did not know what would happen.

Her eyes wandered away from the gazes of the monsters, who had taken to letting themselves be known to her, and she instead focused on the ground rocking below them. There was no soft padding, just hard rock. It was painful just to sit on the cart, but she could easily predict how painful it would be to walk on the path; she had already committed to such an action.

They were all chained together, so if she climbed off they all would fall with her: and they would definitely notice that, and she would be in trouble once that happened. From her perspective, she knew that she would be captured again: the closest thing to escape would severely injure her if she did not aim to kill, and despite everything she most certainly did not want to die.

'Still…' Even in her youth, the idea seemed better than the fate that awaited her. She had heard many a tale about the viciousness of Vampyres, and she was guaranteed misery for what would remain of her life. Yet she was held back by the thoughts of family: the lingering glance of Ciro who saw her in that fire, Hura on the ground, his face buried in the mud, the ground stained red, the screams of his mother, the fire. She could still feel the sting of the fire, and see the ash that had stained her dress.

_**Do it. Jump. Throw yourself off the cart. End it.**_

In her mind she could hear the dares of voices unheard by others, and the thought of perhaps a witch possessing her came to mind: the taunts were overflowing with malice, daring her to execute herself, to try her chances and her luck, and the eyes of the monsters could be seen closer, their figures enormous: like boulders.

She jumped.

Without rhyme or reason behind it, she flung herself over the edge of the cart, the woman pulled close to the edge as Yi's legs dragged along the ground, tearing through the already torn skin, fragments of scabs and fresh skin dug through as rock lodged themselves in the new gaps, the cart forced to a stop if only to stop it from slowly throughout the journey, the carriage slowed as the rider climbed off to investigate.

The ease that came with the stop lasted only moments, the numbness of the beating soon shifting into the aching stings of her bleeding legs, and when she looked down her dress was torn and her legs were bright red. She did not look up or anywhere else, knowing that the moment of madness that had compelled her to jump had faded with the voices, and she would be going nowhere; the hopes crushed by the solid reality of the situation.

She was picked off the ground rather harshly, but she did not protest because she was too small to fight the man properly. Too fragile and too weak. The grumbles of the man only served to make her sour, but she had her doubts and in this rare case her doubts had solid reasoning, she had only wished that it had killed her rather than maimed her.

The faint roar of an unknown creature echoed throughout the empty waste, followed by several others. She knew not what created the roars, but a chill ran up her spine and a feeling of pure and utter dread took over as the sounds of the hungry animals came closer.

"Shit. They've smelt blood." In that frenzied moment, the rider undid her chains and threw her off the cart, leaving her as a meal for the incoming monsters, quick to climb back to his seat as she stumbled to climb back on, cracking his whip, the rolling of the wheels faster than they ever had been, soon leaving her in the dust despite how fast she tried to run with her tiny feet, soon falling and hitting the ground again, more scratches for the beasts to sniff her out.

She knew that there would be nowhere for her to run to, they were much more experienced in wandering the land than her, yet she ran anyway, hoping that perhaps they would see her as a troublesome target and leave her be, but she knew she was the easy target compared to the carriage.

She could see them closing in, like packs of wolves running with a gleeful frenzy towards her with black drool oozing out of their mouths, throwing themselves in her direction as she was forced to come to a stop, the fall before her too great for her to possibly survive.

There were six as a whole, all with patchy fur and teeth like broken glass, with scars and burns as their pride: their declaration of victory. The oldest, or what she assumed to be the oldest, of the group came closest, with the skin of its muzzle drawn back in a snarl. She found herself tipping close to the edge, struggling not to fall over the edge and crack her skull on the crags below. It would have been comedic to observe had it not been for the sheer level of terror on her face as the monster lunged and she stepped backwards into the abyss, descending downwards towards the icy ocean and sharp peaks of the Cliffside rocks, the monster looking down at the ruined meal with the splash of the water enough of an indication that she had not survived, watching for several moments before turning away with a grunt and a snarl at the pack to catch up to the carriage and cart before they entered the city.

* * *

><p>In the waters, Yi's body drifted helplessly towards the rocks, snagged between two, her head limp forward, a steady flow of dark red blood spilling out down her forehead, her nose and down her chin into the water where her legs were too numb to feel the sting of salt water in the open wounds, selkies observing from the thin shore a short distance away, observing the girl as she had rolled down the cliff before hitting the water: it was through sheer dumb luck and that single roll down the cliff that had spared her a horrible, painful death, although they knew that she would freeze to death in the ocean long before she bled out.<p>

"Should we help her?" One selkie asked the other. The seal skin rested by their side, soaked by the previous swim, only slightly warm from the moment of sun that had descended upon them several hours ago, now cloudy and a rain certain to come.

"A human? Leave her be." Their statement was doubtful, for the girl did not appear human. They had white hair and were quite like a ghost: perhaps a halfling.

"We'd be in trouble if it was the king's daughter." The faerie king's daughter had a similar appearance; the fallen girl could have easily have been her. There was a sigh of frustration from the other as they pulled their skin on, the form of a seal as they splashed into the water. It would have frozen most, but a selkie was special; far better than simple humans when it came to swimming in oceans, the figure of the white-haired girl still as they came close, the scent of human and monster on them.

She did not appear human, adorned entirely in white, yet the scent was undoubtedly human. The king had a human consort, so they would not question half the scent, but it was purely human and that frustrated them.

'Oh just bring them to shore.' They took the girl by the arm and pulled them to the shore, almost spitting them out. The taste of her blood was also human: they did not doubt it as they left her on the sand.

"Come on, let's go before she wakes up. It'd be a pain if humans caught us." The girl was a warning: they would search for her, for certain, and they would be eaten by the humans if they caught sight of them.

"Yes, finally." And they splashed into the water as seals as the girl was left silent on the sand, soaked entirely in red as the rain descended upon her.


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER FOUR: Forest Beast**

There was a strange girl in the village, strange for a number reasons, but the main reason being her injuries. Her legs and arms were crusted red with what was assumed to be her own blood, and she was incredibly quiet, speaking not once even when rocks were thrown her way, to dissuade her from the well. She drank so quickly she almost choked and threw up, scurrying away as the children tried to get rid of her, and she did flee, but only when new wounds were opened and she feared she would really die, disappearing from the village into the wilderness where only monsters lurked.

Along the coast where fishermen avoided, frightful of the selkie monsters that would attack wandering humans, was a tiny shack made of scrap material tossed aside or pulled in my the ocean, or even stolen from the villages she came close to. She knew that no one would climb up to her; they were worried about the sharp rocks as well as the selkies, and her cuts and scars came from climbing such rocks over and over again for several days.

She was a pitiful sight for those who were not used to her; the material from a ship's sail, torn throughout the ocean journey, was her new dress, and the broken pieces of wood that washed up protected her against the environment, and she waited until night before stealing what she could of food before she was noticed and kicked away without sympathy. She never cried: always silent as she stared at them with eyes that were already too old for her face, before disappearing into her shack along the shore once again.

She knew that she could not stay for the rest of her life, and that they were searching closer to the rocks for her; to deal with her permanently, she feared. Even with only eight years of life on her back, she knew better than others how much danger she would be in if she stayed any longer; they were coming to dislike her greatly and the punishments more brutal, her eye still stinging from the inevitable pain of a strong strike to the face, and she swore her nose was broken, but she would not touch it.

The wilderness was not a kind place, and the journey to the capital city would be excruciatingly long for her tiny legs, if she did not starve to death before she arrived, and she wished that she had actually stayed on the cart and waited until she entered the city before attempting an escape.

Her thoughts were distracted by the salt water by her feet, and the many things that would wash up to shore. With the water drawing back, fish would be trapped, and she would be able to eat, hopefully, something not dead.

Her feet stung as they always did as she pulled out strange treasures from the shore. There was wood, and cloths of all sorts, as was always the case, but in a pouch that had been left in a jacket too large for her to wear, there was gold, and she wondered if the gods were giving her a sign, that the time to leave was then; that she could flee at that moment and time and there would be no retribution for it.

'Maybe…' She was not as optimistic as she had been many times before, her cheerful thoughts dulled over the past few days as she rang the jacket of the water, folding it over her arm as she returned to her shack along the cliffs. As always, it was a painful climb, but her feet at hardened to the pain, and with a vague sense of what she could consider hope in the jacket, she was relatively happy. 'Yeah…' Although she was cautious, she was willing, and her willpower was focused on leaving and reaching the city to find her brother and his parents.

That night she set out in the bitter cold. Not quite cold enough for snow, but cold enough that her rag dress and jacket did little to protect her, and her legs were numb, yet she pushed forward, and when the wind began to pick up she still continued onward into the darkness she had come to know well: one could consider her a monster for simply being able to see where she was going in such pitch dark, although the moon was still full and only slightly blocked out by clouds. She did not know which direction she was going, only that sooner or later she would end up somewhere else, and there she would be treated with less hostility.

The sights did not change, and she did not wander from the fresh paths of new wagons that had passed through, and soon she felt as though she were repeating the same scenery on a loop, and that in fact she had not moved at all. She had heard the villagers talk about such monsters that could create vivid illusions of such a style, and soon she was worried that she had wandered into such a trap and her death was waiting for her as it had been so many times before.

Perhaps her luck had run out, and she was confident enough to say that she was only alive because of her luck, and that she was truly marching to her death.

When the horizon began to alter, she thought perhaps otherwise, for before her were mountains that reached so high into the sky she could barely see the top. However, with this realisation that she had not fallen into another trap came an unpleasant horror that it would be impossible for her to climb such mountains without shoes or assistance; neither of which seemed possible under her current circumstances.

She could cry, if she felt it would achieve something, but instead she let out an insistent whine that sounded like the wails of a baby, and if she could she would have reacted similarly to a baby and collapse on the ground, weeping her heart away until there was nothing left for her to cry out.

There was a low rumbling then, and the ground shook in a way that knocked her off her feet, the trees that were still left standing after so many battles against nature descending, crashing to the ground with heavy thuds, some too close to her for her personal comfort, the terror as a beast of enormous magnitude leaving her scurrying back but not quite capable of standing, falling before she could even catch her own balance.

The beast that she saw was at least 4 meters taller than she, and had a great hulking figure, letting out a sound she had heard many other times, but only from a distance, covering her ears in fear that she would become deaf if she left them exposed.

It came close, pressing its muzzle against her neck, and she could not move although she so desperately wished that she could so she could at least attempt to flee, and the creature breathed inwards, puffing out thick white smoke from its nostrils.

It reeked of must and rot, and a dampness that she had come to know well, and it had gleaming green eyes that frightened her for they were intelligent but fierce, blaming her for disturbing its personal business.

Perhaps she was mad to consider it, but in her panicked state and conscious awareness of her inevitable death, she let her hands drop from her ears and rested them upon the muzzle of the great beast, tiny hands stroking the stubbles of hair, hoping vaguely that what she assumed to be kind behaviour would stop the beast from eating her.

"Please don't kill me." She was embarrassed to believe that her voice was croaky, like a frog, because she had not had anything to drink since she had left her temporary home, and she swore there was amusement in the beast's eyes before it slowly drew away from her, lifting its head with a sense of pride before plucking her off the ground unexpectedly, the sharp claws of its front paws digging into her jacket, the chill of the hard material against her back startling her, and she was even more startled to see that it could stand on two feet with little to no struggle, even taller than it had been before, and all the more powerful.

It could not speak, that would be impossible in every world, but its actions said enough and when she was put onto its back, the fur reeking of damp straw, she held on as it landed back on its front paws, pulling itself forward and back into the wasteland forest that was its home.

She always thought it a miracle that forests could survive in such an environment. For the most part they were petrified, but the forests further from the cities had life in them still; a spark of green where there would otherwise be dull grey, and she was relieved to feel what she felt to be clean air fill her lungs, absent of ash or smoke that seemed all about it.

She wondered if the world had such forests all about it before the end, and thought about what a beautiful world it must have been, and she had forgotten that she was sat upon the back of a creature that could have lived before the end. Her eyes were upon the leaves and the creatures she saw out of only the corner of her eye, and she thought about what a beautiful place it was.

She did not need to speak, or introduce herself, because the creature did not seem to care. It had followed her wails of defeat with the intentions of consuming her, but changed its mind. She could not understand why, but she liked to imagine that she had earned its trust, and she was being taken somewhere safe, and already she felt better than she had several moments ago, not minding the mud that caked the creature's fur, only wondering what she could do to reach her brother.

They reached a large opening, where a lake was revealed. There were already creatures, similar to otters, in the lake that drifted along the surface, and an old trunk could be seen sticking out of the edge. The creature lowered itself into the lake, most likely intending to wash itself, or to get rid of the horrific smell of fish and salt on her, which was unfamiliar to it.

She splashed and spluttered to the shore, and stayed there as the monster stayed up to its neck in the lake water, a distrustful confusion on its face as she held herself there.

"I can't swim." She thought speaking the words would make it understand, but it stood in the same place with the same expression on its face, until it lost interest in staring at her, shaking itself as twigs and leaves splattered across the lake and against trees, and against her, clumps of mud and fur clinging to her disgustingly.

She found no guilt in taking off her rag dress and washing off the thin layer of blood that had decorated her being, hoping the water would get rid of the putrid smell that had attached itself to her.

For once, she could see her skin in its gleaming white beauty, and she was impressed by the number of red scars that dotted the surface, purple bruises that would not fade like tattoos as she tried to wash them away with the bad memories as the beast watched on silently, its eyes transfixed on the vast number of scars, understanding that they were not markings but the result of attacks the girl had survived, and it understood that although she refused to get into the water, she was not an inexperienced youngling, but an abused one, and there was pity in its eyes as she scrubbed at her hair, as white as her skin, and it understood that perhaps there was good reason as to why she would not go further into the water.

She did not know what to do, once all of the filth had been cleared away, and she found herself staring at the creature with large eyes that still seemed so frightened and confused, trying to understand the creature's reasons for guiding her to such a place, and whether it would try and eat her if she slipped up, something she hoped to be anything but true.

It came close to her once again, but instead of a sniff of her unfamiliar scent, it gently rested its great, heavy head against her shoulder as a form of comfort that only dogs used against her before, and she knew that, somehow, it understood her hardships, and it was in that moment that she finally allowed herself to cry.

* * *

><p>A mask covered her face, carved from the oak of a long since dead tree, slits for eyes, painted a red ochre as she stood upon her perch; barely a shadow to be noticed by the army that marched onwards into the distance, and she could see their faces if she squinted hard enough.<p>

A low whistle summoned a creature enormous in scale, and she climbed safely onto its back. She was but a tiny figure, not even a teenager, who rode like a strong king on the creature's back, onwards beyond the forest that they had come to know as their home, and her eyes were steady behind the mask as she followed the path of the small army, carefully and quietly, until the beast would go no further, and she would travel alone.

She climbed off its back, stroking the fur around its neck as she had done many times before, saying nothing as she consoled the creature silently that she would return soon enough, and that she was grateful for its kindness two years before as she worked about the forest like a beast of her own kind, a nimble, quiet sort that could disappear before anyone noticed it.

That night she left her new home with changed ambitions and talents, and she scurried along the mountain sides like a rat, observing the marching army from a distance and collecting what they had abandoned feverishly. She robbed from the graves without remorse, even if she knew that ghosts of humans and vampyres were just as dangerous as living beings, robbing their clothes and weapons from the buried corpses, knowing that it would do much better than the rags she had shaped into clothing, and although she knew only how to use a spear, she knew that it would not take long for her to learn how to hunt with a sword as well, and she continued to follow like a hungry animal.

Soon, they caught on to her, and a night guard was set up, seeing a glimmer of a white figure like a ghost every night, and swearing that they had been cursed by their enemies while she consumed what she had taken, watching for her opportunity every moment.

When the time came, she could not have been put in a more perfect situation, the massacre of a village that was unknown to her serving as the perfect backstory, clambering into the burnt remains of a hut that was not burnt enough to make it impossible for her to survive, smearing herself in the ash and lying herself across the ground, waiting for them to find her.

* * *

><p>And that's the end of her history for the time being. I think I should get on with the plot now.<p> 


	5. Chapter 5

Woo wee I love this chapter a little too much. Perhaps it's a result or Royu (Ryou if were in it's original form, I wonder how many people have picked up on the fact that they're all Japanese names mixed around?). I think Royu and Yi's relationship will be an interesting one throughout this. At one point I will bring in her brother and the brothers. Maybe next chapter. Maybe not. Depends on my mood. Also, I am writing it in the correct way: I'm writing it English-English (because I'm British) instead of American-English.

* * *

><p><span><strong>CHAPTER FIVE: Leaving a Mark<strong>

She had a strange look about her when her eyes wandered, her soot-stained clothes no doubt home-made, and picked out of forest scraps.

'She must be a feral.' Was the first thing that Morish thought when she had regained consciousness. Her eyes were guarded, cautious, and a touch bit frightened; like most ferals that escaped the few forests that had remained.

"What's your name, little girl?" They wondered if she had lived in the wilderness so long that she no longer remembered how to speak, or if she even knew her own name. There were times where they were abandoned at birth and only knew grunts and snarls; one of their own men was such an individual, and even after ten years could only say 'yes', 'no', and his name.

She stared at the man that spoke with hostile eyes. They were a strange hue, although not entirely impossible, and it seemed to match the rest of her appearance quite well, as well as the slow transformation into winter.

"Yi." She said after a moment. A quick, raspy voice that held no gentilities or greetings. They did not blame her for her caution; they were well-armed and much bigger than her. And they had already acknowledged the fact that she was not a member of the village and was probably foraging when she became involved in whatever massacre had occurred.

"Yi, that's an interesting name you have there." She pressed her lips together and furrowed her brows, keeping any words from slipping out, any questions she had were not spoken out loud. Good, the girl was a quiet one.

"Well, Yi, I don't suppose you have a home anymore." It was another man that spoke, and Yi observed him closely. He was not especially muscular, but he held himself in such a way that there was no doubt he was confident in fighting everyone about him. With a thick beard that had been braided in some places, and the skin of a wolf around his shoulders, it was clear that he was not to be messed with. "And I'm seeing only two options for you here. One: you can choose to stay here or return to whatever forest you stumbled out of and we get on with our lives. Or two: you come with us and we find out whether you were worth the effort of sparing."

She already knew her answer: it was why she had stumbled into plain sight to start with. Of course, they did not need to know that, and she went through the effort of making it look as though she were thinking about it.

Her legs had already gone numb with the cold; she was used to sleeping in the cave on cold days. It was an effort to move her fingers, and when a wind cut through she had to clamp her teeth together to stop a whimper from escaping her mouth.

"Two." She stated. She hoped for something warmer, a vague hope of comfort, but no blanket was tossed her way, no shoes, or food. They simply went on their way and she was made to trail after them.

* * *

><p>It was after only a short amount of time that she learnt that they were not the sympathetic sort, and if she were to get anything she would have to either work for it, or get it herself. She figured it fair; she saw not a single incompetent individual, and if there ever had been such people in the group they had probably died off or left a long time ago.<p>

Still, she could not help but feel unhappy with the harsh change. In the forest that she had resided in for such a short amount of time, the beast had comforted her and fed her, and when it was too cold for her to go outside she would sleep in the burrow until it was warm again. In some sense, she had been pampered yet again, and she wished that she had toughened up beforehand.

Her stomach growled rather rudely amongst the clutter of feet, and she could see someone glance at her, but she did not glance back. No, she would not beg for food: she knew how to forage and hunt. She had done it so many times that it was almost second nature. Except she did not know where there was food in such a foreign habitat. She would have to learn eventually, and she would learn after they stopped.

Their destination was unknown to her. They seemed to be wanderers, and she was just fine with that so long as they reached the capital city at one point; she would be happy to leave after she reached that point.

"Don't your feet get cold?" There was a young boy, two years younger than her, that had finally decided to muster up the courage to speak to the stranger.

"Yes." She responded immediately, making sure to keep up the pace with the others. The girl was covered from head to toe in patches of soot, and was dressed in leaves and what he assumed to be parts of small animal fur carelessly stitched together. Her face was smeared red and she reeked of bog.

"Then why don't you have no shoes?"

"Don't have time for it." That was true, in some sense, but he had assumed that at one point in her life she had at least tried to make shoes: or maybe she didn't need them wherever she stayed.

"Oh." He responded, because the silence was uncomfortable. Yi allowed herself a moment to look at the boy. Like her, he had incredibly pale hair: not quite white, but very close to it. Everything he wore was made either by himself or by someone he lived with. "I'm Royu." He said, trying to end her staring with a comfortable nature.

"Yi." She made an attempt at a smile, but it was strained from lack of use. It looked crooked, but Royu took it as a good sign and smiled back. She noticed a missing front tooth and wondered he had lost it in a fight or if it fell out. He did not appear the fighting sort, so she assumed the latter.

"Hold on." He scurried away, to one of the carts, and talked to a strange lady with wild hair and a wandering eye. They did not look familiar in the slightest, but the kiss on the cheek and the hug suggested they were close, Royu quickly returning to her side with a pair of what she recognised to be shoes. "They belonged to Hori, so we don't need them anymore." She did not question who Hori was, pausing her easy pace for a moment to slip into the shoes.

They were three sizes too big, and her feet shifted inside the boots when she moved, but they were warm and she was not going to complain after the boy had been kind enough to give them to her.

"It'll be fun having another kid around."

"Is it just you here?" He nodded his response. She had noticed the lack of children. The only other members that were close to her age were at least ten years older than her, and they were far less willing to talk to the stranger.

'Best butter him up.' After all, he would be her only link in the community throughout her time here.

"Well, I hope we get along well." She tried at another smile, more convincing than the previous now that she had managed it once. Royu's eyes instantly glistened as he latched onto her: like a leech.

"I hope so too!"

* * *

><p>When they had settled, night was closing in and she could hear the creatures roam in the darkness. Throughout her short time in the forest, her hearing had grown to be much stronger than her eyes. After all, in the moments that she was left alone by the beast she was left as potential prey to the predators of the forest, and she was always listening.<p>

The environment had changed, but the predators had the same objectives, and she had ceased her conversation with Royu to listen closely.

The fire crackled in the background, and she could vaguely hear the voices of the cheering group, but her focus was on the snarls she heard far too close for comfort. They were hunting in packs, and she knew that the fire would draw their attention. It could also scare them off, but not so easily. A knife to the eye worked much better at that; and her crummy stone knife was not nearly as useful as what the others had.

'I hope those swords aren't toys.' They survived in the wilderness, so surely they knew how to use them. She felt she would not sleep that night, or any other night she heard those insistent snarls.

"Yi?" For a moment, her hearing faltered and her attention was on the boy. "What you looking at?"

"Monsters close by." Royu made to squint into the darkness, but even she could not see into such unsettling dark. He trotted over to the spot on the ground next to her. She had faced away from the fire, and was sitting with her back to group. She was still hungry, but too stubborn to ask, and the others were quick to notice that she was not the asking sort. It was the main reason that Royu had been sent with food; he would give it to her regardless.

'Can't have a starving girl following us around.' They had no doubt that she would give up and leave at one point, but it would be a nuisance to have Royu trailing after her even as she fell behind. In the short amount of time that they were together, Royu had already attached himself to the strange girl, and was insistent on knowing every detail of her life, and while some were curious as to what led to her strange emergence from the wilderness, most were not so willing to ask questions.

"People keep saying you're a feral." She had never heard the term 'feral' before, and stared at Royu questioningly until he elaborated. "You came from the forests."

"I did."

"How long you been there?" She paused for a moment, listening for those monstrous growls once more. They were further away now; they had found other prey.

"Three years." She answered at last. She stared up at the sky: it was a clear night, which meant it was only going to get colder, and she wished that she had not been so stubborn as to refuse asking for help. Royu was a kind boy, but they weren't going to give him everything on a silver platter, and she found herself hating the idea of having to rely solely on him.

"How old are you?"

"Ten." She answered without hesitation. She knew that it had been close to her seventh birthday when her small home was destroyed.

'Stop it.' She pushed the billowing waves of dread down, almost making the movement with her own hands, feeling that choking sensation in her throat, a pit in her stomach that she made sure stayed in her stomach.

Royu noticed, but pretended not to. Everyone had a grim start to their story, and he knew that someone who lived in the wilderness ended up there for a reason: whatever Yi's reasoning was, it was not nice.

"Here you go." To distract from what discomfort that had started to take over her, he offered some of his own meal. He was full already, and he had a tiny stomach, so it could not necessarily be counted as a sacrifice on his part; he had seen the hesitation every time he offered something to her. She had already figured out that this group consisted entirely of 'give-and-take' people; and he was no different from the other members of the group.

Sooner or later he would start asking for payment, but for the time being her company and answering his questions counted as payment. He may have been young, but he was already experienced in getting what he wanted, and for the time being what he wanted was to know the girl.

Yi took it gratefully, watching him while he watched her. In her eyes, beyond the harsh stare and the cautious nature that seemed to bristle at the slightest touch, there was a vague innocence that had clung on tight. She was still a child, just like him, and he was glad for that much.

"You'll get sick if you eat too fast." She did not seem to mind, and he could only watch grimly as she wolfed down her meal, breaking into the bones with her teeth. Not quite as sharp as Vampyre teeth, and there was a chip in one to emphasise that they were very human teeth, but enough that the bone broke apart with little effort. "Sorry, no marrow left in there." It had been cooked out.

It was the smallest movements that gave away her still childish nature. The slightest of pouts, turning the bone scrap in her hand under the vague hope that there would be something inside. Of course, he was not lying when he said there was nothing left, and she tossed it aside swiftly with a slight huff.

"Cold night." She said after throwing it. She was not completely numb to the cold it seemed, despite her walking bare foot in the snow for half of their journey; perhaps it was that obstinacy and that worry for how long she would refuse to admit that she was crippling herself that encouraged him to do something.

He was just as hardened as the others, and perhaps even crueller at times, but when she aimed to hurt herself just because she was too stubborn, or perhaps too shy, to ask for help, he could not control himself. He was not such a cruel person after all.

"Yeah." As with everything else, she would not ask for help and she would not say thank you. She neither gave nor took without someone else causing it. He pulled her over the log that she had nudged herself into, almost throwing her backwards into the fire as she flailed. She was quick to regain her position though, but she was quick to snarl as he settled by her side yet again. "It's warmer on this side." And he wrapped a blanket around his shoulders and hers. He would only give her the blanket; nothing more. She would have to start working for the group tomorrow, and he was not going to be so kind. Still, this moment was a nice one to share with the girl who almost generated her own heat after a short while.

"Thank you." She said after a while. It was the first time she had thanked him for his kind gestures, and he made note of it somewhere in his mind. The smile was much more natural on his face. A tiny, fragile smile that threatened to break at any given moment; he said nothing about what she would have to do in the morning, if only to preserve that smile for a minute longer.

"No problem."


End file.
